I was at the sand drags this past weekend, and I saw a Raptor in person for the first time. I must admit the raptor does look impressive, but it is in no way superior to the banshee. The Raptor was bone stock and I saw a Banshee that was stock except for a set of pipes, and the Banshee beat up on the Raptor pretty good. The banshee was on a average of .3 (3 tenths) faster. Now before every one says that it was unfair that the Banshee had the advantage of the pipes, lets look at the fact that four strokes don't respond as well to a pipe as does a 2 stroke. So even if the Raptor had a aftermarket pipe, I don't think that the big raptor could run with the smaller Banshee. Cause we all know how well a Banshee responds to a good set of pipes. Now I can say this with out favoring either machine because I own a 250R 4 trax. Long live the 2 stroke machine.

 

Yes but acceleration and top speed isn't everything. I'm sure the Raptor handles quite a bit better than the shee though. And I own 2 Banshees, so I'm not bashing the shee at all.

 

The BAnshee doesnt just "respond well" pipes, it makes it a whole new machine. I dont think thats really a fair race in my opinion.

RoostKing...

 

Well I can tell you that today, for the first time, I got to get a really good ride on the Raptor in the environment that I used to ride my Banshee in. It was some tight trails, some wide open field riding and some hill climbing, but not the type of hills that you find in the dunes. Some of them were at about a 70 degree angle and some may have approached steeper parts than that at certain points.

I'm not bashing the Banshee, because I had one, I had LRD pipes and it screamed on mid and top, and I also set it up with a moto-fast pipe and regeared after the set of LRDs.

From todays ride (about 20+ miles), I can tell you that in the right environment, the Raptor is going to be extremely hard to beat! Of course, no machine is perfect, so I'm going to tell you what could be changed to make it even better.

First, it could be geared just a little lower in second, but even as it is, simply applying more throttle results in it putting out the grunt power and wheeling on.

Secondly, I will probably replace the plastic swingarm skid with an aluminum and maybe go with a 22" rear tire to prevent knocking around on big rocks and such.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with it after today.

 

Pipes are typical for the banshee. Very few stay with the stock set up. Therefore a typical banshees takes the cake every time.